乗鞍のソウルフード「とうじ蕎麦」｜のりくら観光協会公式サイト

Soba is one of the representative foods of Norikura Highlands. Norikura Highlands, with its large temperature difference, is an ideal place for growing soba. You can enjoy delicious soba with firm texture and rich flavor. Among them, Touji Soba is a local dish that has been passed down in the area since ancient times. What is Touji Soba? How can you enjoy it? This time, we will introduce the appeal of Touji Soba.

Toji Soba, Norikura's soul food

❶ Touji Soba

"Touji" includes the meanings of "to throw in," "to soak," and "to warm." Touji soba is made by placing boiled soba noodles in a woven bamboo basket, then dipping the basket and soba noodles into a hot pot of boiling various ingredients, and eating it quickly heated like shabu-shabu. Seasonal vegetables such as wild plants and mushrooms are added to the soup.

The soba noodles are divided into small portions and heated only as much as you want to eat, so they won't get soggy until the end.
It warms you from the inside out and is especially delicious in the cold season.

❷ Touji soba for the locals

Touji soba is an important local dish that was served at weddings and other celebrations, and was once enjoyed around the hearth during the cold seasons, with people warming themselves with a pot of dried greens and other vegetables. In the NHK morning drama "Ohisama" (aired in 2011), which was set in Azumino, Touji soba was also served at the wedding celebration of the main character.

Norikura Highlands is particularly cold in winter, but enjoying a meal of Touji soba noodles together during the cold season is sure to warm your body and soul from the inside out.

❸ How to eat Touji soba like a connoisseur

Toji soba is served in a bowl with plenty of soup and toppings, along with your favorite condiments. After the soba is finished, the soup retains the umami of the ingredients and the flavor of the soba. It is also delicious to add rice and eggs to the soup to make rice porridge. It is said that the way to eat it as a connoisseur is to finish the pot so that there is nothing left.

Once you try it, you'll want to relive that soba and that warmth again during the cold season... Touji soba seems to have a nostalgic charm, and some people say that if they visit Norikura during the cold season, they can't leave without trying it!

❹ Restaurants where you can eat Touji Soba

In Norikura Highlands, you can eat Touji soba at Soba Restaurant Nakanoya and Soba Restaurant Gassho. Both are famous Norikura restaurants that serve delicious, freshly made soba noodles grown on their own farm. There are also lodgings that serve Touji soba. If you are staying in the area during the cold season, why not give it a try?

❺ Touji Soba at Home

For those who have enjoyed Touji soba at Norikura Highlands, or who have not yet tried it but are thinking, "I wish I could enjoy Touji soba at home..." Mr. and Mrs. Saito, who run the family restaurant Sobadokoro Gassho, introduce how to enjoy it at home. If you're interested, be sure to check it out.